LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Employment opportunities seem to be in the near future for Las Cruces residents. In a recent article, BusinessWeek.com has projected the job growth in Las Cruces to go up 1.5 percent in the first quarter of next year and that's after being down 5.7 percent just months ago. The article is about where job growth is expected to be found in the first quarter of 2010 and out of the top 25 cities, Las Cruces made it to all the way to number No. 9. The online article is a collaboration from BusinessWeek.com and MoodysEconomy.com and the article said with the recession appearing to be over the nation is expected to have job growth of one percent for the first quarter, but a few metro areas will surpass that one percent. New Mexico State University economics professor Professor Chris Erickson said one of Las Cruces' biggest strength is all the government jobs available.

“The largest segment of the government sector is the university, but we also have White Sands that's also expanding, we have Fort Bliss and Fort Bliss of course is in El Paso, but there's a lot of spill over from that into the southern part of the county,” said Erickson.